Friday, August 3, 2018

An Immigrant's Tale

There are many things that make me proud of the American
College of Physicians.

ACP’s courageous leadership in standing up for those seeking
to immigrate to the United States is one of them.Over the past 18 months, ACP has issued a
comprehensive statement on immigration
policy affirming its opposition “to discrimination based on religion, race,
gender or gender identity, or sexual orientation in decisions on who shall be
legally admitted to the United States as a gross violation of human rights,” opposed
the President’s original Executive Order barring immigrants from six majority
Muslim countries because it was discriminatory, and would adversely
affect non-U.S. born IMGs seeking to study, train, or provide medical care
in the United States; joined in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court
urging that the court overturn a modified version of the ban for the same
reasons; issued a statement expressing
concern that the Supreme Court upheld the ban; advocated for legislation to
provide permanent
legal status, and eventually citizenship, for persons enrolled in DACA
(Dreamers); successfully advocated to end delays in processing H-1B visa applications from IMGs that were
stalled or denied due to increased scrutiny regarding prevailing wage data;
objected to the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating
immigrant children from parents, or detainingparents and children together in detention
facilities, because of the harm to the health of children and their families.

Many other medical organizations have shied away from
immigration policy, maybe because it is considered to be too controversial, too
complicated, too political, and too divisive, among their own members and the
public.Some may feel that immigration
policy is not their area of expertise.

For sure, there are reasons to be cautious about entering
the fray: immigration is controversial, complicated, political, and divisive,
and physicians are not experts on how to enforce U.S. immigration laws or
control access to our borders.

But physicians are experts
on how public and social policy affects the health of the public and their
patients.While immigration policy is
complicated and controversial, so are many other issues, from gun violence, to
high prescription drug prices, to what happens if people are denied access to
affordable coverage. Yet, many physician professional societies have tackled
those issues, because of their abiding concern for patients.

While my own family experience has no bearing on ACP policy,
it is one of the reasons why I am especially proud of ACP’s willingness to
speak out on the impact of immigration policies as a public health and human
rights issue.

My father, Jack Doherty, was born poor in Ireland, in a
thatched cottage with no plumbing or electricity.He originally emigrated with my grandmother
and grandfather to New York City as an infant. For reasons unknown to me, my
dad at age two returned to Ireland with my grandmother, without my grandfather.
My grandmother raised my dad as single mother in Ireland on a subsistence farm
for eight years, during which they had no contact with my grandfather. When my
father was 10, they got a letter from my grandfather asking them to return to
NYC to be with him.They sailed in
steerage once again to NYC and were reunited with my grandfather.

My grandfather, Thomas, was a bar-owner and bartender at
Doherty’s Bar in Woodside, Queens, NYC.My father told me he had a very difficult relationship with his father,
given that my grandfather had abandoned him and my grandmother for so many
years, and my father had grown up without knowing his dad.

Thomas died when my father was only 16. My widowed
grandmother took over and ran Doherty’s Bar until my father was 18, and then my
father ran it—not as an absent owner, but an owner-bartender who worked six
days a week, 10 hour shifts behind the bar, serving shots and beer to blue
collar workers.He married my mother,
Marilyn, a few years later, a U.S. born and college-educated woman whocame from a working class Irish-German background.

The bar ended up being successful enough for my mom, three
sisters, and I to enjoy a middle-class lifestyle, enabling my siblings and I to
go to good schools and colleges and have just about everything we wanted and
needed.

When I was in college, I was the third generation of Doherty
men to work behind the bar whileon
summer break from college.

Fast forward: my dad decided that being a
bartender/bar-owner with only a high school diploma was not giving enough back
the country (the U.S, not Ireland) that he so loved. While still tending bar 10
hours a day, six days per week, he went to college at night to get his B.A. in
history, and then, a Masters in secondary education. He sold the bar in the
late 1970s and became a NYC public school teacher, in a high school that taught
mostly underprivileged minority students. He said he wanted to teach
disadvantaged minority kids who faced discrimination and hardship because he
had been a poor child himself, facing discrimination (the Irish at that time
were not welcome by many Americans) and hardship.

Because my grandmother, grandfather, and father came to
America to escape dire poverty, my sisters and I had great schooling and a
college education. One of my sisters is a U.S. diplomat, one’s an award-
winning theater costumer designer; one is a social worker who has spent most of
her professional life counseling poor and emotionally troubled teenagers. I, of
course, have spent my career advocating for internal medicine physicians.The advantages we have had have been passed
on to our children.

My dad passed away 11 years ago.His immigrant story, like millions of others,
is what truly makes America great: unskilled, poor people coming to America to
improve their lives, and by doing so, improving America.

So, when ACP speaks out for the unskilled, poor people
coming to America today to improve their lives, it resonates with me. And makes
me so proud.

Today’s questions:What
is your view on ACP taking on immigration policy?And do you have a family immigration story
you want to share?

2 comments
:

What a great story, Bob! Immigrants of all color, caste and creed make the American mosaic and make it resileint, vibrant and powerful. America's power realy does not come from its guns or rockets, but from the strength from this vibrancy and the collective talent and enterprise. Indeed, ACP should take a lead in generating an immigration policy. ACP is in a unique position to lead this effort because of the myriad countries from where its members hail. Go for it!Kesavan

Bob, some of my progenitors came to America as Hugenots, fleeing persecution in France in 1700s. They found a home in Virginia and prospered in a land of religious freedom. Freedom is precious, whether religious, speech or political. It is something for all of us to reflect on as we look at the stories of our revered ancestors.Alan